What are you guys building

[Cdallas2]

Hey y'all - I've been off the "net" for awhile and was just wondering what's brewing in your shops.

I had to move a few months ago to a small place with no room for a shop so I've starting concentrating on designing again.

Here's what I've got almost ready to go:

[flysrc]

Chris, Nice pattern plane. Just think if Jason shulman can fly an elecrtic and Chip Hyde a bipe, why not a twin. I'll bet it would ruffle alot of feathers at the top of the pattern food chain. It would look swee tI bet. Just think if it was in the 2x2 meter class with twin ys 120 4strokes. By the way this is what I'm finishing off.
Dave

[TIM WOON]

Dave

The plain is looking well I can't wait to fly it. I figure on the in the middle of june

Can spell
Can't fly

[Jan Blom]

I got a Stream 50 made by Hirobo, its an arf but it seems well made. Got it at London swap for a good price. I plan on putting a YS 63 in it. I have to go over the hardware and do some upgrading on things like horns and pushrods. I hope the IMAC guys dont find out about this :D

[Randy Brown]

I been flying with you buddy

you need something to learn about straight lines:)

:censored:

I got a Stream 50 made by Hirobo, its an arf but it seems well made. Got it at London swap for a good price. I plan on putting a YS 63 in it. I have to go over the hardware and do some upgrading on things like horns and pushrods. I hope the IMAC guys dont find out about this :D

[Sabrejock]

This is my second. Weight 5lb 14oz RTF. 900Watts. I haven't flown it yet, but the last one was quite satisfying at around 100w/lb for good sport aerobatics. This one at 150w/lb should do it all pretty well. T.

[can773]

Look like a nice electric pattern model Tex, I bet it flies well.

Since we are on the topic of electrics now, my friend Nedim has been building one of his Manits models in an electric version for a customer over in Asia. Its got a Hacker C50 13XL in it and looks most impressive, however a little pricey for me at the moment, if the prices become reasonable I think this is going to be the ticket in the future.

Anyways, some pics.....

http://members.shaw.ca/rcac/e-mantis%20001.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/rcac/e-mantis%20004.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/rcac/e-mantis%20006.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/rcac/e-mantis%20103.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/rcac/e-mantis%20102.jpg

[Sabrejock]

For what it's worth that Tracer pictured above has a power system (motor, ESC and two 14xGP3300 packs) costing about $C800-850. Getting into the big geared Hacker and LiPo's for a full blown FAI ship can set you back a couple of "G"s. A powerful enough charger to handle the big cells in a 30 min charge is about $C200 and of course you'll need an RV size deep cycle battery.

It ain't cheap, but man it is ever satisfying to get to the field, plop the plane down, pin up and range check all in about a minute or so.

When your pals are still pumping fuel, you've got a routine or two already in.
Same thing in reverse. You're packed and they're still filling the trash with towels. T.

[Cdallas2]

Hey Chad,

Do you know if Nedim made any modifications to the fuse or is he just accomadating the Hacker for fitment without anything too radical.

My personal feeling is that with these electrics the airframe weight will some down further since it won't suffer from the YS shake.

Very impressive I must say though...

[Sabrejock]

Cdallas2: I don't know Chad's experience with E-power but I have a lot. Especially with the high end watts type of flying. You can get away with the light weight frames for scale and 3D(whatever that is) but for Aresti and other types of aerobatics you still need the stiffness of normal construction. ie: you need a rigid motor platform and tail group. We're swinging some serious size props here. FAI guys are into the 20" plus. I'm spinning 16" for aero and 21 in scale, so the dynamics during gyrations can be severe.

Nedim is putting a lot of CF in the front of that thing and for good reason. T.

[can773]

For what it's worth that Tracer pictured above has a power system (motor, ESC and two 14xGP3300 packs) costing about $C800-850. Getting into the big geared Hacker and LiPo's for a full blown FAI ship can set you back a couple of "G"s. A powerful enough charger to handle the big cells in a 30 min charge is about $C200 and of course you'll need an RV size deep cycle battery.

It ain't cheap, but man it is ever satisfying to get to the field, plop the plane down, pin up and range check all in about a minute or so.

When your pals are still pumping fuel, you've got a routine or two already in.
Same thing in reverse. You're packed and they're still filling the trash with towels. T.

Tex

The motor is no biggie, its basically the same price as we pay for the glow ones, its really the batteries that kill you. You are looking at about $750 US for a single pack. If you compete you should have at least 3 as its the life of your model you need spares to ensure continuous flying should one go south.

Now comes the fun part.....the packs in use currently are 10S3P's and 10S4P's, 6000 and 8000 mah respectively. Most planes will make the 11 lb weight limit with the 10S3P packs, few if any will make it with the 4P packs. These packs are around 6C peak draw, but a full blown pattern ship will hit around 60 Amps in the air. The 3P is only good for 36 so by running it you are really killing the life of the pack as LiPO's as their life is related to the current you pull from them :) So the 4P's get up to around 50 amps so they are more in the range, but you cant use them because its unlikely you will hit the weight limit with them. Now they have 10C packs being tested right now which will help out a lot.

In the long run I figure those packs need to come down to $250-$300 each before they are going to get real popular for us anyways.

For charging most guys run two chargers and split the packs into 5S3 or 4P and charge them separately to prevent imbalance in the packs.

They are neat but its still a couple years off before it really takes off in the larger stuff I figure.

Hey Chad,

Do you know if Nedim made any modifications to the fuse or is he just accomadating the Hacker for fitment without anything too radical.

My personal feeling is that with these electrics the airframe weight will some down further since it won't suffer from the YS shake.

Very impressive I must say though...


Chris

He did a small mod to one of glass layers to lose a couple of grams. We did a fuse really light to see what you can get but its way to weak to handle the flight loads. I think we are at the limit of fuse weights unless we start changing materials, you still need it rigid enough to fly properly and the way it works out that minimum rigidity is enough to handle the vibes from the glow motors.

Wings and stab could get a bit lighter, but again they need to handle flight loads. Might be able to get a couple ounces lighter but its not going to be anything huge.

In reality you dont want them any lighter, figure this......

glow models are weighed without fuel and need to be under 11 lbs, lots of guys are 10.5.....now fill her up with over a pound of fuel and your TO weight it up to 11.5 lbs.

Electric models need to meet the limit with their batteries, so if you weigh in at 10.75 lbs with batt's then that is your TO weight....you are already .75 lbs lighter than the glow model.

In order to have maximum flight characteristics you want to hit the optimum weight, for most of the 900-950 sq in models you are looking for a flying weight of 10-10.25 lbs. So the electrics are not too far off of that mark.

An electric model at 10.75 lbs is about the exact same weight as my Enigma on takeoff with its 20 oz of fuel onboard, my Enigma is considered quite light at 9.85 lbs without fuel :)